Unlocking potential: Toward a National Advocacy Campaign for career development in Canada

Career development can have a tremendous positive impact on individuals, employers and the economy. Unfortunately, it is a significantly underused resource in Canada. To help unlock the transformative potential of career development, a group of interestholders representing a diverse cross-section of the field across Canada – with the support of CERIC and human-centred design firm Overlap Associates – is working to develop a National Advocacy Campaign.

The purpose of developing a National Advocacy Campaign is to increase the visibility, profile and impact of career development in order to improve the working lives of everyone in Canada and build a more prosperous economy and equitable society. As we reflect on a year of work moving toward this goal, we wanted to share this journey with the broader career development community and invite in more voices as we continue to develop this initiative together.

This community-led initiative is being advanced through the collective leadership of individuals from a variety of career development organizations and institutions across Canada: ASPECT BC, CACEE, CCDF, CERIC, Challenge Factory, Employment and Education Centre, First Work, John Howard Society, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Louis Riel School Division, ODEN, People for Education, SIEC, Skills for Change, The Neighbourbood Group and University of the Fraser Valley.

The idea to develop an advocacy campaign took root in CERIC’s Advocacy and Community Engagement Advisory Committee in 2022. The committee identified several opportunity areas for a campaign, which were refined at CERIC’s Cannexus conference in January 2023 through community consultation and a two-day design thinking workshop with 40 career development leaders. This led to the development of seven campaign prototypes for a potential future National Advocacy Campaign:

• Join Me on My Journey
• Endless Possibilities – Become Employable
• Beyond Decent
• CAREeRS
• Path to Prosperity
• Life Aesthetic
• Career Web

This consultation also resulted in the creation of a Steering Committee and Working Group, which developed criteria for selecting a campaign prototype and interviewed interestholders to generate feedback on the campaign ideas. In October 2023, the Steering Committee selected the “Beyond Decent” campaign idea to further explore, based on an analysis of community feedback.

As the purpose of the National Advocacy Campaign is to increase the visibility, profile and impact of career development, we believe it is important for this initiative to involve, reflect and be embraced by Canada’s career development community. CERIC has engaged Overlap Associates to help integrate human-centred design – an iterative, collaborative approach to problem-solving – into the process of developing a National Advocacy Campaign. The “Beyond Decent” campaign idea will continue to evolve through the research and ideation phases, which will invite the collaboration of interestholders across the career development community in Canada.

We want to hear from you! Join our outreach list to stay informed, share your ideas and be a part of this transformative journey.

To explore the campaign prototypes, learn about the ongoing process for developing a National Advocacy Campaign and see who has been involved, visit our webpage, “A National Advocacy Campaign for Career Development in Canada.”

Have questions? Reach out to CERIC’S Senior Director, Marketing and Communications, Sharon Ferriss, at sharon@ceric.ca.